The Perfect Solution For Call Centers

VoIP: The Perfect Solution For Call Centers

Since VoIP is currently on the verge of becoming the preferred telecommunications technology, it is obvious that it should attract the attention of call centres. The crowded offices of yore, with operators answering telephones and writing e-mails, have now been replaced by much more relaxing places. If you own a call centre and you haven’t yet made the switch, the information in this article will bring to your attention the many benefits VoIP can offer you.

First of all, VoIP operates over the Internet instead of the traditional PSTN lines. From a technological point of view, this means they are not circuit-switched, but packet-switched – relying on the same principles that govern communication between two computers. With the help of audio codecs, sound information is made into data packets that travel across the Internet. Actually, the computer can now operate in a very similar way to a telephone.

But you are, of course, more interested in the advantages this difference can give you. The best known and most obvious of these advantages is that VoIP will help you reduce costs. On the one hand, it does not use too much bandwidth, so it allows convenient integration of multiple web-based services. In other words, there’s more than just audio information that you can transmit and receive. On the other hand, there is no more need for telephones. Finally, making calls via Internet telephony is quite inexpensive compared with PSTN.

Outsourcing is not a new phenomenon – in fact, it’s been around for quite a few years now. VoIP is the perfect solution if you want to facilitate outsourcing. On the one hand, overflow calls can easily be routed to a second call centre, so that customers won’t have to wait so long. On the other hand, it becomes a lot easier to employ people from areas where the costs of labour are lower, which not only makes it possible for you to save money, but also enables you to offer 24-hour service to your customers if the employees come from different time zones. The ability to choose an area code according to your preference will make it more attractive for your customers to call your call centre, as they will only be charged for a local call.

We’ve mentioned service integration as one of the main attractions of VoIP. Let’s have a more detailed look at what that means.

It is quite convenient for your customers to know they can contact the call centre via phone, e-mail, fax, or web. All these features are integrated into your real-time VoIP package.

An even greater facility offered by VoIP is the feature called Automated Call Distributor. Depending on the problems they are reporting, customer calls can easily be routed to the correct department or agent, so that callers will get the best assistance possible. If that particular agent is out of office, you won’t need to tell the customer to call them on their mobile phone, you can simply route the call to them (assuming, of course, that they have a VoIP adapter or phone and are currently connected to the Internet).

The Interactive Voice Response does not require that an agent should talk to the customer before routing the call to the appropriate department. It can be done automatically, with the help of recorded instructions for the customer.

Because everything goes on over the Internet, it means that you get a lot more information about the customer than just what you can infer from the tone of their voice. When someone calls, relevant information such as their name, address, credit and billing history, etc. is already displayed to you, so that they won’t need to go through the long process of explaining. This not only makes it more convenient for the caller, but it also reduces the time necessary for each interaction, thus increasing productivity.

Many call centres have already made the switch. It’s time you started considering the option as well, so that you may streamline your business and provide better services to your customers.

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